Visualization Study of Steam Condensation in Rectangular Channel of Multichannel Cylinder Dryer

Abstract

The phenomenon of steam condensation occurring on one surface in a rectangular horizontal channel was experimentally studied. The experiment was conducted using a visualization method with a steam quality of 0.1–0.9 and mass flux of 20–50 kg/m2 s. Four flow patterns (annular, wave, slug, and plug) were observed, and the effects of quality and mass flux on the condensing heat transfer were analyzed. The mass flux and steam quality primarily affect the condensing heat transfer coefficient in the shear-dominated flow regime. The condensing heat transfer coefficients are nearly constant only in a certain range of steam quality. This result is disparate from what has been reported in previous literatures. It was also observed that the condensing heat transfer coefficient rises with an increase in the quality. Two flow regime maps were employed to predict the flow regimes observed in this study. The result reveals that the Tandon flow regime map agrees quite well with the experimental results.